Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

These virtual worlds can be used in many different ways. According to a CNN article --"you're not going out into the real world meeting people, you're going meeting people online and in your own home, so you're perfectly relaxed. It's just a fantastic tool to use to bring people together." An sufferer from autism was able to use chat rooms and soon realized that people used symbols to express themselves: the smiley signs, the angry signs, hug signs, etc., to enhance the text. He went on to say that subconsciously his brain was learning about communication from these sessions of chat. On the more negative side the toy Webkinz has been criticized due to the fact of alienation of kids and their parents.  Positives include expanding medical training in the virtual world. Virtual worlds definitely foster creativity. You can be who ever you want to be behind your computer. If you're shy in person you can show your true side on a computer doing things you enjoy with people with similar interests to your own. I think that the future of virtual worlds will look extremely close to reality. The graphics will be impeccable and we will feel as if we not only have an avatar representing us, but it will actually be us.